The 2014 Kazakhstan Chess Championship for men is taking place from 3rd to 12th May, 2014 in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. The tournament format is a 12 player FIDE round robin with an average rating 2417 (seventh category). See the list of participants here

The 4th edition of China Women Master Tournament is taking place from 5th to 13th May, 2014 in Xishan, China. The event is a 10 player round robin with top seed WGM Ju Wenjun (2526). Tournament website List of participants: 1 WGM Ju,Wenjun CHN 2526 2 WGM Huang,Qian CHN 2494 3 GM Zhu,Chen CHN 2461 [...]

The 2014 U.S. Chess Championships for men and women will take place from 7th to 20th May, 2014 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL). The 2014 U.S. Championship will be a 12 player round robin. Top seed GM Gata Kamsky (2713) will defend his title. The other contenders are: GM [...]

Ο Νίκος Περγιάλης (γεννήθηκε 19-IX-1930) συνθέτει προβλήματα με  καθαρό θέμα και λίγα κομμάτια.Επίσης επιδιώκει να παρουσιάσει ιδεώδη ματ, όπου όλα τα κομμάτια συμμετέχουν.Πρόβλημα_764Νίκος...

Η εικοσιτετράχρονη WGM Μελανί Όχμε είναι μέλος της σκακιστικής εθνικής ομάδας της Γερμανίας. Ως ακτιβίστρια εναντίον του ρατσισμού και των διακρίσεων προσκλήθηκε στο Τρόμσο της Νορβηγίας, όπου το καλοκαίρι θα...

Ιούνιος 1962, στην πόλη Βίνα ντελ Μαρ της Χιλής, Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο Ποδοσφαίρου. Δυο χρόνια πριν, το μεσημέρι της 22ης Μαΐου 1960, η χώρα είχε χτυπηθεί από τον πιο σφοδρό σεισμό που έχει καταγραφεί στη σύγχρονη ιστορία του...

English GM Keith Arkell won the recent European Individual Seniors for those age 50+. But he is a relatively young veteran compared with some of those playing! Following the individual event was the European Senior Team Championship where the following miniature was played between a 69 year old and an 81 year old. Congratulations to these two […]

The 4th edition of Dhamso International Chess Festival took place from 29th April to 5th May, 2014 at Thomas De Silva Memorial Auditorium, Dharmasoka College, in Ambalandoga, Sri Lanka. The 9-round Swiss Open was organizes by The Old Boys’ Chess Association of Dharmasoka College, Ambalandoga, in collaboration with Sri Lanka Chess Federation and FIDE. The [...]

The Latvian Chess Championships for men and women took part from 29th April to 5th May, 2014 in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. The 9 round Swiss Open for men was convincingly won by the last-year champion GM Igor Kovalenko, who collected 7/9 points, leaving the runner-up half a point behind. GM Arturs Neiksans [...]

The Capablanca Chess Festival 2014 was held from 25th April to 4th May, 2014 at Southdowns College Arena, in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa. Local IM Kenny Solomon shared the first place in Prestige GM tournament with GM Aleksa Strikovic (SRB) and CM Andrew Kayonde (ZAM) with 5.5/9 points each. IM Solomon took [...]

Stockfish (3157) continues rolling through the TCEC Season 6 – Stage 4. The engine has 6.5/10 points, half a point more than the reigning TCEC champion Komodo (3148). Houdini (3148) is third with 5.5/10 points, while Critter is not doing well in this group, having only 2/10 points. The latter was crushed by the leader in [...]

The FIDE Arbiters’ Commission announces the list of participants of the Moscow workshop for the training of the International Arbiters. The workshop will be held from 23 to 25 May 2014 in Moscow. The Lecturers are IA Andrzej Filipowicz (Poland) and IA Alexander Tkachev (Russia). The venue of the workshop will be the Office of [...]

The 5th edition of Luc Open took place from 28th April to 4th May, 2014 in Lille, the capital of Nord-Pas de Calais region in France. The event gathered 187 players from 21 countries, including 8 Grandmasters and 14 International Masters. GM Nikita Maiorov from Belarus emerged clear winner with 7,5 points from nine rounds [...]

Most amateur players are far too attached to material, and rarely think of sacrificing for positional reasons, unless they know it is theory. One example of a type of sacrifice which is rarely seen at lower levels is the pawn sacrifice, to ensure simplification. This is often a very useful defensive technique. In the game below, Black […]

The Chess Informant series looks the same on the outside, issue to issue, but the past few years the contents have changed dramatically and there seems to be no end in sight. I don't know what it means but I find it a bit dizzying, and with they would get some stability. For what it's worth, I'll offer my list of what I'd like to see in the Informant, and I invite those of my readers who...